No, previous administrations didn't end the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan or physically stop Saddam Hussein from making blood-money payoffs to the families of suicide bombers in Israel...so this is an all new Administration with all new policies, and those policies are working.There is one school of thought that the U.S. can only win by declaring war on all of Islam and wiping out 1 billion Muslims. Per that thought-train, any other path is off on the wrong track.
But there is more than one way to win this war on terror. Frankly, I'm enormously pleased to see Musharaff sending the Pakistani army into near-lawless tribal lands to kill al-qaeda and Taliban holdouts. I'm thrilled that true American allies such as President Harmid Kharzai of Afghanistan is training, fielding, and deploying Afghans to fight against Al-Qaeda. You don't see anyone protesting Americans in Afghanistan, that's for sure! Likewise, I enjoy seeing Ghadafy peacefully give up his WMD's and send his son to Europe to beg that we not invade. I'm happy to see Jordan's king Abdullah host American training centers for new Iraqi helicopter pilots, as well as watch Jordanian security foil poison gas attacks against them as well as us.
Why go to war against all of Islam when there are moderates out there who *will* aid us?
President Bush's policies are precisely what needs to be done. This is the smart way to fight and defeat terror. We are driving a wedge into terror so large that even the Saudis are finding themselves on our side fighting against Al-Qaeda. Vast amounts of monies are thereby being denied to the terrorists now (finally!). Hideouts for them are few and far between. Each day we kill more terrorists, capture more terrorists, confiscate more of their money, gain more intel on them, and turn more of their own brethren against them.
Naturally, this is made easier by being able to portray the Intifada against Israel as being somehow seperate from the larger war on terror worldwide...and this distinction understandably chaps your hide...but this distinction is necessary until we can show the outside world incontravertable evidence that Arafat was either behind 9/11 or is at least allied with al-qaeda (something that I think that we are reasonably close to achieving).
Once that point is reached (and that isn't the only way to reach this political point, either), then those already allied with the U.S. will be forced to concede that Israel is correct to apply a terminal military solution to Arafat's vast operations...and moreover, the entire Arab world is going to have to finally concede Israel's right to exist, complete with exchanges of embassies and ambassadors from *all* countries.